We’re Starting the School Year Off Right!

We have had a very busy, fun filled  September learning what is expected of us now that we are second graders. The beginning of the school year involves learning the routines and expectations in a new grade and classroom. Now that we are second graders, we are learning how to write in our homework notebooks each day. 

We mark our lunch count with our paws!

Here is our behavior and  responsibility clip chart.

We wrote our “C8 Class Constitution” and all signed it.

                             We displayed our Math About Me pages in the hallway.

100+ Days of Second Grade – Part 3

We came back in 2019 ready to learn! We worked on money with some math games…”Roll to a Quarter” or “Roll to a Dollar.” Mrs. Nelson, Mr. Marion and I supervised and assisted the students in playing these learning games.

We have been studying the polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctica as well as matter in Science. That means hands-on experiments that we wrote up in writing as lab reports. The students got to experience what it was like for polar animals to survive in icy water habitats. They put their hands in ice water first. Then they did it again with a “blubber glove” and felt the difference. Below is just one photo of this experiment. You can see more under the Student work 18-19 tab.

Annesta demonstrating the “Blubber Glove”.

The students also did experiments with matter. We saw water change state of matter by putting ice cubes on our heater. We also did an experiment with making a chemical change by mixing vinegar and baking soda to make a gas. Here is the photo of this experiment.

Samil and Nathan assist in this experiment. The students were excited to see the balloon fill up with the gas created by the vinegar and baking soda.

We culminated our matter unit with matter projects that the students made at home and shared with us at school. Here are most of the matter projects. Individual photos can be found on the student work 18-19 tab.

Oops . . . I almost forgot to post the photos of these matter projects that came in late.

Although we haven’t had any snow days, there have been many days that have been too cold to go outside. Luckily we have lots of things to play with indoors. Here are some photos of some of the students creations at indoor recess.

On the 100th day of school we had another challenge from Zero the Hero. He brought 5 containers and the students had to estimate the amount in each container. They also had to decide if that number was greater than, equal to or less than 100.

When they were finished with the challenge, they were able to receive a baggie with three cookies from Zero that they had to use to build 100.

It’s been a busy 100 days of learning in C8 and the rest of the school year will be just as busy!

100+ Days of Second Grade – Part 2

Our students joined the other second grade classes in the cafeteria for the culminating activity for our Traditions and Customs unit which was a special feast on the early release day before Thanksgiving. They shared food made from recipes that reflected their family heritage. It was a tasty way to celebrate the diversity of our classroom. Thank you to all the families that sent in food for the feast and to our parent volunteer, Ms. Hibbard who assisted with the set up/clean up. Individual photos of the foods can be seen under the Student Work 18-19 tab.

Ann Biese demonstrating a breathing technique.

Johnny the K was very engaging and entertaining.

We were fortunate to attend two assemblies with special guests. The first was Ann Biese, an author who wrote the book “Worry Bee” and spoke to us about how to handle our worries and emotions. The second was the performer, Johnny the K who played his guitar and wore crazy hats to teach us how to be kind and to get along with each other.

Safety is important so we practiced our bus evacuation drill. The upper grade students assisted us.

We have also had fire drills and Alice drills this year.

We had a visit from Zero the Hero who left a treat of latkes for completing his challenge.

We also did some stations where the students worked on math and literacy skills with a holiday theme.

Gabriella and Devin working on building holiday themed compound words.

At this station the students were measuring holiday images with inch and centimeter rulers.

Before we headed off for the December holiday break, we made Ice Castles out of mini-marshmallows, frosting and lots of candy. Thank you to all the families who sent in the supplies and donated extra candy. Thank you to Ms. Allore, Ms. Hibbard and my daughter Catie for helping with the Ice Castle projects. Here is Sabella with her Ice Castle. More examples of their Ice Castle creations can be seen under the Student Work 18-19 tab.

We also made special snow globe ornaments that we sent home to share with their families. Here is a photo of some of these snow globes.

More to follow in Part 3!

Goodbye September…Hello October!

It’s hard to believe that we have finished our first month of school. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the parents who attended Thursday’s Curriculum Night. It was nice to be able to meet you and tell you about our second grade classroom, the curriculum, and the expectations. If you were unable to attend, I sent home a copy of my presentation as well as other important papers and my contact information  with your child on Friday.

I look forward to meeting all the parents at our Parent-Teacher conferences on November 14th. We had signups for the Parent-Teacher conferences at Curriculum Night. Those who weren’t present will be assigned an afternoon conference time as all the evening time slots have been filled.

I also want to thank all the parents who sent in supplies for our classroom. Special thanks to the parents who hand-delivered supplies on Thursday night. Please let me know if you need the bag that you brought the supplies in back and I’ll send it back with your child.

A quick reminder that I will be collecting the September Behavior/Responsibility charts from your children tomorrow so please leave it in their homework folder. Also I’d like to remind you to please return the volunteer form if you are able to volunteer in our classroom. Volunteers are so helpful for providing extra support to our classroom.

 

Boston Museum of Science Field Trip

After a long bus ride, we arrived just in time to attend a live animal show about how some animals mimic other animals. The live animals were a snake and an owl. Some of the students stayed after the show to see them up close and to ask questions.

Learning about how these two snakes look alike but are very different.

Another example of animal mimicry.

Then we went to the dinosaur exhibit and took some group photos!

Our class in front of an actual triceratops from Hell Creek, Montana. This is the same place that Mrs. Riordan, Mrs. Porcello and Mrs. Cooke went to DIG School to learn about paleontology and to dig for fossils.

How many students’ hands can fit in a T-Rex footprint?

Our class beneath the T-Rex!

Looking up at Mrs. Riordan taking the photo from above!

After breaking for lunch, we got to explore the museum to see many other exciting exhibits.

Maria balancing weights!

Checking out some info on this screen!

Learning the science of centrifugal force and having fun!

Swinging on the moon!

This playground gets the whole body involved while they are learning about science!

Science is AMAZING!

Arianna enjoying this hands on experience!

Miranda enjoyed balancing the weights too!

Thank you to Mrs. Anello, Mrs. Brandvold, Mrs. Cowan, Mrs. Horvath and Ms. Silva for being fantastic chaperones on this field trip! Special thanks to Mrs. Brandvold for taking many of these wonderful photos.

 

Important Information and Reminders!

This note was sent home today but in case it didn’t make it home, I am posting the information here as well.

Due to the recent school closures from the storm, the second grade team has decided to make the following changes :

The Unit 4 Fundations packet will be due on Thursday, November 9, 2017.

We are sending home the spelling words today but the spelling test on these words will also be on Thursday, November 9, 2017.

We would also like to remind you that the Halloween Party and Parade will now be held tomorrow, November 2, 2017.  If you signed up to send in treats for the Halloween Party, please send them in tomorrow.

September Lunch Bunch!

 

The September Lunch Bunch!

Elizabeth, Haylee, Kaylee, Miranda, Logan and Carter

Each month I try to hold a special lunch with the teacher called the “Lunch Bunch”. The students who get invited to the monthly lunch bunch have displayed exemplary behavior and responsibility that month. This is documented by the behavior/responsibility charts. If a child gets all stickers or has only clipped down one time that month (because everyone is entitled to a bad day), they will be a part of that month’s lunch bunch. Additionally, if they didn’t clip down even once, they earn a “paw”.  The September lunch bunch enjoyed a picnic lunch in the courtyard….until a yellow jacket decided to join us. (We moved indoors at that point!)  Congratulations to the September lunch bunch and I hope that in October I have even more!

Welcome to My New C-8 Families!

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I am so excited to have your children as my students this year. Since we are having the curriculum night later this year on Tuesday, September 29th, I thought you might like a sneak preview of our classroom. Here are some photos I took of our classroom prior to school starting.

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This view shows our main teaching area with the smart projector, whiteboard, and our rainbow rug! Many of the students are sitting in a horseshoe around the rug.

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This is the view as we enter the classroom and shows our coat closet, sink, my desk and the large table used for many things like reading groups.

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In this corner, you can see our cozy classroom library and my vast collection of children’s books I’ve collected over 25 years.

This is just a taste of what our room looked like before the children arrived.  But the room really came to life when 23 second graders walked through the door. Here are two photos I managed to shoot on the first day of school during the “Getting to Know You” game.

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I will update the homework page nightly and periodically post blog updates on this page to help keep you informed and let you share the excitement that goes on in second grade.

Penguins and More Penguins!

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Jacob and Michael writing facts about the Emperor Penguin.

The C8 students are learning about penguins as part of their study of the habitats of Antarctica and the Arctic. The students reached into a bag and drew out a paper drawing of one of six species of penguins. Then they went to work on filling in graphic organizers with the information they gathered. They worked cooperatively with classmates who also drew the same species of penguin. They worked very hard learning details such as the height, weight, prey, predators, appearance, and habitat and then went to work recording this information. They will use these to write reports on their penguin next week.

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Thomas and Katie hard at work learning about the Adelie Penguin.

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Jayden, Fatima, and Cecily share resources on the Gentoo Penguin.

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The King penguin was the penguin that Hailey and Oorjaa were lucky to get.

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Miss Morning works with the Macaroni Penguin group of Gabriel, Gavin, and Tierra.

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We made a rookery of penguins!

 

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Kendra shared her penguin collage too!

They also made these awesome penguin collages in art with the art para, Ms. Ross. Aren’t they cute!